RESOURCES

PEDAGOGY OF THE OPPRESSSED (1970)
Written by: Paulo Freire

In what is widely considered to be a foundational text in critical pedagogy, Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed proposes that all educators rethink their understandings of the relationship between teacher, student, and society as one grounded in cooperation and organizing with the aim to overcome social injustices and liberate all human beings.

REPRESENTATIONS OF THE INTELLECTUAL (1996)
Written by: Edward W. Said

In this collection of thought-provoking essays, the pre-eminent scholar Edward Said explores what it means to be an intellectual. For Said, the principle role of an intellectual is an indispensable one — to “speak truth to power” even in the face of ostracism or imprisonment. In so doing, Said describes the intellectual as someone with a unique responsibility: “endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, a public”, the intellectual must endeavour to maintain their diligences to integrity and sense of justice. By examining individuals such as Theodor Adorno and Henry Kissinger as well as key world events from the Vietnam War to Gulf War, Said demonstrates with an acute sense of criticality how the lures of money, power, or specialization can not only inhibit one’s capacities for critical engagement, but denature the intellectual spirit.

COGNITIVE JUSTICE IN A GLOBAL WORLD: PRUDENT KNOWLEDGES FOR A DECENT LIFE (2007)
Ed. by: Boaventura De Sousa Santos

In this book, Santos and a number of other distinguished intellectuals argue that global social injustice is, by and large, an epistemological injustice. Expanding upon ongoing debates about the plurality of truths and opinions, this book critically examines the problematic hierarchical relations between science and other kinds of knowledge existing in society in order to highlight the ways in which we validate some ways of thinking while discounting others. On this basis, the essays each speak to the notion that there can be no global social justice without global cognitive justice.

DECOLONISING THE UNIVERSITY (2018)
Edited by: Gurminder K. Bhambra, Dalia Gebrial, Kerem Nişancıoğlu

Taking inspiration from the 2015 student-led movement in Cape Town otherwise known as ‘#RhodesMustFall’ as well as wider calls for the decolonisation of the world’s universities, Decolonising the University explores what it would mean to radically transform the terms upon which universities exist. This collection of essays from student activists and scholars centres on a discussion of the possibilities and pitfalls of “doing decolonial work in the home of the coloniser”. In addition, the text offers resources for students and academics who seek to challenge and resist coloniality inside and outside the classroom.

THE GOOD UNIVERSITY: WHAT UNIVERSITIES ACTUALLY DO AND WHY IT’S TIME FOR RADICAL CHANGE (2019)
Written by: Raewyn Connell

With over 200 million students in universities and colleges worldwide and funds flowing in like never before, Connell argues that the institutions of Higher Education have never been unhappier places to work. In this book, Connell speaks to the corporate-style management dominating HE under cost-cutting governments, and examines both student-led mobilisations and industrial strike actions by university staff across the globe to explore what a ‘good university’ under different conditions might look like. As such, Connell outlines a practical vision for how Third Level institutions can become more engaging and productive for the sake of social advancement rather than profit.

NEW MANAGERIALISM IN EDUCATION: COMMERCIALIZATION, CARELESSNESS AND GENDER (2012)
Written by: Bernie Grummell, Dympna Devine, Kathleen Lynch

In an examination of the education sector in Ireland, this book looks at the multiple impacts of neoliberal reform on the ethos of care and service on public provisions, such as education. Specifically, the book explores how these issues influence the appointment of senior management across the education sector as well as the experiences of those in those positions.

DISABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A SOCIAL JUSTICE APPROACH (2017)
Written by: Nancy J. Evans, Ellen M. Broido, Kirsten R. Brown, Autumn K. Wilke

In a critical examination of how disability is conceptualized in HE, this book looks at the ways in which students, faculty, and staff with disabilities are viewed and served on college campuses. It argues that the tendency to focus solely on legal access and accommodation further entrenches a system of exclusion and oppression. Shedding a light on the politics of access and accommodation, the book seeks to illustrate the multifaceted ways disability interacts with various aspects of identity and experience as well as provide strategies for addressing ableism in the assumptions, policies and practices, organizational structures, attitudes, and physical structures of higher education.

CHALLENGING RACISM IN HIGHER EDUCATION: PROMOTING JUSTICE (2005)
Written by: Mark A. Chesler, Amanda E Lewis, and James E. Crowfoot

At the centre of the various discussions running throughout this text, Challenging Racism in Higher Education looks at the historical accumulation (or cumulative disadvantage) as well as the differences in wealth and income between Black and White students and faculty. Ambitiously, the book explores multiple avenues for transformative change such as recruitment and retention to organizational and leadership structures, and institutional policy. The authors also examine what it means to “promote justice” within the predominantly White institutions of HE in the U.S. from a systemic point of view by highlighting the experiences of BAME students.

IS EVERYONE REALLY EQUAL: AN INTRODUCTION TO KEY CONCEPTS OF SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION (2017)
Written by: Özlem Sensoy & Robin DiAngelo

This text was designed to be an introductory handbook for those interested in exploring social justice in education. It provides tools for developing “critical social justice literacy” and for taking action towards a more just society. Intended for readers of all levels, this book offers a collection of detailed and engaging explanations of key concepts in social justice education, such as critical thinking, identity, prejudice, oppression, power, privilege, and White supremacy.

TEACHING TO TRANSGRESS: EDUCATION AS THE PRACTICE OF FREEDOM (1994)
Written by: bell hooks

In an attempt to challenge general preconceptions about what a pedagogy is or isn’t, hook’s collection of essays about teaching examine the politics and practices of teaching and learning through the lenses of class, gender and race. Combining personal narrative with critical theory, hooks argues that education fails students in the refusal to acknowledge their particular histories. Against the grain of exclusivity and privilege, Teaching to Transgress argues for a pedagogy that aims to liberate and include.

HIGHER EDUCATION AND SOCIAL JUSTICE: THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF UNIVERSITY TEACHING AND THE POWER OF EDUCATIONAL PARADOX (2018)
Written by: Leonie Rowan

Focusing on the pedagogical decision-making processes of university academics, this book looks at how educators’ orientations to social justice in their teaching and learning practices reflect particular political orientations and understandings of the world we live in. Along these lines, Higher Education and Social Justice looks at what it means to cultivate inclusive, respectful, diverse and student-centred environments within our classrooms. The book examines the perspectives of university teachers who struggle with the unique challenges of working in the academy while trying to maintain focus on the transformative potential of HE.

A FLY GIRL’S GUIDE TO UNIVERSITY: BEING A WOMAN OF COLOUR AT CAMBRIDGE AND OTHER INSTITUTIONS OF POWER AND ELITISM (2019)
Written by: Lola Olufemi, Suhaiymah Manzoor Khan, Odelia Younge, Waithera Sebatindira

This collection of memoirs, essays, and poetry from four women of colour who studied at the University of Cambridge speaks to the wrongness underpinning their shared experiences as students in an elite institution. Inspired by the belief that their voices, lives, and experiences matter – especially in a place of power, pervasive whiteness and exclusivity – A Fly Girl’s Guide seeks to uncover the white, middle-class, cisgendered, predominantly male and able-bodied spaces of which the institutions of Higher Education are largely comprised.

THE PRIVILEGED POOR: HOW ELITE COLLEGES ARE FAILING DISADVANTAGED STUDENTS (2019)
Written by: Anthony Abraham Jack

Based on a case study of disadvantaged students struggling to survive in elite colleges, The Privileged Poor presents a case for what HE institutions can do to help its most marginalised and disenfranchised students thrive. By examining the ways in which less privileged students long continue to struggle after arriving on campus, Jack argues that admission is not the same as acceptance. Documenting the policies and cultures that perpetuate the preexisting inequalities between students, the author illustrates the variety of ways ‘diversity initiatives’ fall immeasurably short of supporting poor students of colour.

SUPPORTING TRANSGENDER AND NON-BINARY STUDENTS AND STAFF IN FURTHER AND HIGHER EDUCATION: PRACTICAL ADVICE FOR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (2019)
Written by: Jessica Kingsley

This book begins with research findings that show 85% trans students and staff face multiple barriers throughout their engagements with Higher Education. By laying out evidence-based policies, interventions and advice that have been proven effective in alleviating the difficulties endured by transgender and non-binary students and staff, this book offers support on a range of issues surrounding teaching and learning, mental health, and institutional policy in the HE sector. The book also includes a universally accessible introduction guide to transgender terminology and identities, as well as legal and medical considerations.

TRANSFORMING THE IVORY TOWER: CHALLENGING RACISM, SEXISM, AND HOMOPHOBIA IN THE ACADEMY (2012)
Ed. by: Brett C. Stockdill and Mary Yu Danico

The authors throughout this edited collection argue that despite greater numbers of women, working-class people, people of color, and increasing visibility of LGBTQ students and staff in recent decades, universities continue to perpetuate institutionalized forms of sexism, classism, racism, and homophobia. In an extension of existing struggles to break barriers in the academy, Transforming the Ivory Tower highlights the need for bridging theoretical understandings of inequality with concrete strategies for change.

ACTIONABLE POSTCOLONIAL THEORY IN EDUCATION (2011)
Written by: Vanessa Andreotti

This book centres on an examination of how postcolonial theory can be incorporated into education. With a clear and accessible overview of ongoing discussions surrounding the Western ethnocentrism and hegemony across educational contexts, Andreotti offers examples where teachers and researchers have succeeded in their incorporation of postcolonial research and critique into their pedagogical endeavours. In so doing, the author encourages educators and researchers in education to seek out engagements with postcolonial theoretical frameworks by illustrating the manifold benefits said engagements have in and out of the classroom.

SPEEDS DIGITAL SKILLS ASSESSMENT TOOL

Social Policy Educators: Enhancing Digital Skills (SPEEDS) is a project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education in Ireland. The Digital Skills Assessment Tool helps users gauge their own level of competencies, literacies, and fluencies in teaching and learning technologies

ALL ABOARD

ALL ABOARD is a national project that aims to empower learners, teachers, and all those who use technology to support their work, their study, or other aspects of living in a digital age. Their site includes a Metro Map of digital skills to help visitors understand the variety of technologies available and shared lesson and learning materials available to anyone online.